Sustainable finance and ESG is a crucial tool to support the finance industry in reorienting capital flows and investment towards achieving global sustainability goals. Green Building Councils (GBCs) around the world have been at the forefront of catalysing sustainable finance for many years at a local, regional and global level.
To support this movement, WorldGBC has launched the Sustainable Finance Taskforce, which will amplify and build upon the work carried out by our network in order to strategically convene the finance community and built environmental professionals, as well as leverage our influence to drive the sustainability agenda across the real estate industry.
Real estate is a major asset class accounting for two-thirds of global real assets and is at risk from both physical and transition risks. At the same time the built environment has a significant impact on our planet accounting for 37% of energy related emissions, generating approximately 100 billion tonnes of construction, renovation and demolition waste every year, and being responsible for a significant share of extracted materials and global water consumption.Tackling and drastically reducing both the risks to built assets and their impact on our planet requires large-scale transformation, backed by the upscaling of investments and funding options.
GBCs have been at the forefront of sustainable finance for many years, using tools such as green building certifications which many GBCs operate. These have become a de-facto gold standard for many sustainable investments.
WorldGBC has leveraged this pioneering work, shaped and defined green mortgage standards, influenced the recommendations of the first Technical Expert Group (TEG) on climate mitigation criteria for the EU Taxonomy, and subsequently steered the definition of technical screening criteria for the building sector in the EU Platform on Sustainable Finance.
Our recognised expertise in sustainable finance comes from decades of experience in both defining the environmental performance standards for buildings and infrastructure, as well as through GBC certification schemes and our network’s role as a catalyst for political and industry action to champion sustainable buildings through advocacy, training and awareness raising.
WorldGBC’s Sustainable Finance Taskforce comprises GBCs from around the world alongside our corporate partners. Its objectives are:
Exchange on global, regional and local sustainable finance developments, opportunities and risks.
Lead strategic discussions on how to proactively address the finance sector, calling for and working towards alignment across different frameworks, metrics and targets.
Connect the finance and built environment sectors.
Foster a collaborative and direct exchange between all stakeholder types across the built environment supply chain including financial actors.
Scope areas of work that would benefit from collaborative efforts and require an in-depth exchange, as well as convene individuals with technical expertise in Working Groups.
WorldGBC’s activities on the EU Taxonomy build on European GBCs ongoing work to align green building certification to the EU Taxonomy, provide third-party verification, convene national working groups (e.g. in Finland, France, Ireland, Italy or the Netherlands) and offer a wide range of resources to facilitate the implementation of the EU Taxonomy.
Europe:
Finland:
France
Hungary:
Italy:
Ireland:
Netherlands:
Norway:
Spain:
Sweden:
Increasingly, GBCs run third-party certification services of EU taxonomy-aligned green buildings, accepted by financial institutions and.
Austria:
The Austrian Sustainable Building Council (ÖGNI) runs the DGNB certification in Austria and has also adopted the DGNB ESG verification service – it has performed about 800 “EU Taxo Checks” as of August 2023.
Germany:
German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB) has developed an “ESG verification” of the environmental criteria of the EU Taxonomy and its minimum social safeguards for new construction, refurbishment, acquisition and ownership of buildings. The assessment can be carried out both in parallel with and independently of DGNB certification.
Hungary:
Hungary Green Building Council (HUGBC) offers third party verification of conformity with EU Taxonomy climate mitigation criteria for buildings in Hungary. HUGBC has trained and accredited verifiers and manages the registration of verified buildings. Verification is a requirement for certain green financing instruments supported by the Hungarian National Bank.
Netherlands:
DGBC has adapted the BRREAM certification scheme to the Dutch market and BREEAM NL In-Use v.6.0 is aligned to the EU Taxonomy. An EU Taxonomy report is provided in every BREEAM-NL In-Use V6 certification for both residential and commercial buildings.
The BREEAM-NL and EU Taxonomy comparison shows in more detail how the newest BREEAM-NL technical manuals relate to the EU Taxonomy.
Norway:
In Norway BREEAM NOR New Construction v.6.0 is aligned to the requirements of the EU Taxonomy.
Italy:
GBCItalia has aligned the Italian “LEEDS protocols for reporting purposes” to the European Taxonomy for new construction and renovation (REV 0–2022).
France:
France’s HQE certification for commercial buildings run by CERTIVEA now includes tools for a EU Taxonomy alignment self-assessment for which third-party verification is available. Certivea also issues “certificate of engagement” in the planning phase of a project, which provides supporting evidence for financial institutions to demonstrate eligibility and alignment to the EU Taxonomy (e.g. Article 9 funds).
Ireland:
The Irish Home Performance Index is aligned with the EU Taxonomy and tailored to the Irish residential sector, with worldwide recognition for example by GRESB or the WELL building institute.
Spain:
VERDE and DGNB System ES are aligned with the European Taxonomy facilitating EU Taxonomy evaluation and verification of buildings. VERDE will cover all EU Taxonomy requirements as of January 2024.
Sweden:
Sweden Green Building Council aligned all certification schemes to the requirements of the EU Taxonomy: Miljöbyggnad iDrift 2.0, Miljöbyggnad 4.0, Citylab 4.0, Greenbuilding 8.0, BREEAM-SE New Construction v6.0 and NollCO2 1.1.